An Evening With James Potter Himself
by Rhapsody in Pink
Summary: A short look into James' subtle courtship of Lily during one particular detention with Professor Trelawny. WARNING: Contains high fluff!


Disclaimer: If Harry Potter etc. belonged to me I'd have money to buy Christmas presents. As it is, I'm broke and the family are going with homemade gifts like…um… well, actually I'm not that crafty. Blech!

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An Evening With James Potter Himself

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I sighed. Tonight rotted to say the very least. 

I was sitting in Professor Trelawney's musty room dying for a breath of fresh air. The ancient scent of over boiled tea leaves was slowly crawling into my brain and melting it. That, my dear Trelawny, is what house elves are for. So you don't force your students to inhale toxic fumes.

Normally I wouldn't be so upset by being in such a place. Almost every student was admitted to the torturous dungeon of the batty Trelawny's lab. Luckily, I had transferred to Muggle Studies half way through my fourth year. I don't think the four eyed doofus ever forgave me for it either. However, these circumstances were entirely different from a learning environment. I had left fourth year fully expecting never to be at the mercy of Trelawny's tender care again. For all that, I still managed to get a bloody detention the night _she _supervised it. Of all the luck! 

I ask you, who would have known that setting half a classroom on fire would result in a detention? It was all because of that git, James Stupid Potter. If he had never said that I was the outcast of society I wouldn't have been in the least bit upset. I satisfied my sulky self with the thought that he got detention too. I glanced over at James who, unfortunately, was sitting about five inches away from me. _The no-good lout_, I muttered vengefully under my breath. He looked over at me and I scowled. Then he looked at my paper and snickered. We were supposed to be writing essays, mine was the bad results of a bad temper and James's was about teasing.

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It is a good thing to have a bad temper because than you have an excuse for when you blow up your enemies. You may plead temporary insanity when prosecuted.

Signed: Lily Evans

Okay, so I had a feeling that this remarkable and delightfully creative essay just might earn me another detention. As long as it wouldn't be with Mr. Almighty beside me, I would be happy. I then looked at his paper and choked. There were doodles of Severus Snape dressed in with pleading looks on his face while dressed in absurd costumes. I REALLY didn't want to know what was going on in that boy's head. He looked at me and saw my desperate attempts to mask my smile. He grinned. Have you ever seen James Potter? He is incredibly handsome with this one adorable dimple in the side of his cheek when he smiles. The worst part is that he knew he had me. He always has everybody when he decides to use that particular weapon. My knees went weak. I forced my eyes to narrow at him. 

"That's mean, you scum!" I hissed out of the side of my mouth. 

"What are you talking about?" asked James as his eyes sparkled. "Snape is EVERYBODY'S enemy. Merlin, he's practically an enemy of the state! You said so yourself."

"Since when did you start eavesdropping on my PRIVATE conversations?" I demanded furiously.

What if he knew about my crush? Oh the humiliation! I would never be able to show my head in the magic world again. Taking a job in South Africa sounded rather appealing. 

"When Peter decided he had a crush on you," James answered innocently. "I had to convince the poor guy SOMEHOW that you didn't like him.'' He winked at me. 

"You insensitive prick!" I exclaimed. "You knew I liked him, you KNEW!" 

"Come on Lily," James rolled his eyes, "you know that you'd get tired of him and then break his heart. I didn't want that to happen to Peter. He's my buddy, he doesn't deserve that."

"Well!" I huffed, insulted. "I wouldn't get tired of him!" Sure, I'd lost my infatuation with him in about a month but for that time period I was perfectly devoted. I sniffed and turned my back on James, ignoring the miniscule apology he hissed in my ear. Apparently Mr. Perfect didn't have to grovel too often because he was miserable at it. I planned in training him in the art as soon as possible. There were bound to be other things he had to make up for eventually and then I would be there, humiliating him… oh, it was all so exciting.

James completed his essay (all of five sentences) and returned to Professor Trelawny who had been mistily gazing into the depths of her crystal ball since we had arrived. 

"Ahem," James coughed to get her attention. "I'm done Professor," he said handing her the parchment. 

"Wonderful, I have never seen a better essay," Professor Trelawny said in a distant voice before tossing the paper into the rubbish bin without even looking at it. I always knew James was a favorite. 

The hair on the back of my neck raised as I felt James's breath as he came to get his quill and ink. It smelled of the peppermint drop he'd been sucking on while working on. I kept myself calm as he collected his supplies. If truth be known, I was a sucker for James Potter even though I hid it well. Extraordinarily well. I should receive a gold medal in the Olympics for this- oh sorry, that's a muggle sport. I'm sure you wouldn't understand. 

"Um, I'm sorry Lily," he whispered again. "I guess I hadn't realized that you'd been that hung up about him." How couldn't he have known what a wreck I was when I discovered Peter didn't like me? Even SNAPE noticed something was wrong when I didn't trip him on the way to class. I fiercely hated boys for the rest of the year. I remained firm in my decision to stay icy.

"Okay," I heard James sigh. James never sighed that way unless it was a girl he- wait a minute! I was obviously beginning to hallucinate in this foggy classroom. There was no way that James Potter could ever love me back.

I felt something brush against my cheek and by that time, I was so lost that I couldn't have figured anything out from the daze I was suddenly thrust into. Was that...could it be? I turned just in time to catch James' blue eyes twinkle at me as he climbed down the ladder. Was it possible that I had just received my first kiss? You hate him, Lily, I sternly reminded myself. You do not like James Potter! I sat there contemplating what had just happened for the next hour and a half until Professor Trelawney approached. 

"Your essay Miss Evans," she said in a surprisingly stern voice. Her usually dreamy eyes were marbles as she glowered down at me. I guess that the cockroach juice in her tea last year hadn't been forgiven yet. She glanced at my paper. "Very unsatisfactory, please return tomorrow for another detention."

I grumbled and fumed as I hurtled down the makeshift ladder. It was whisked away as soon as my feet touched the floor, causing me to trip over someone sitting on the ground. What kind of idiot waits in the middle of the room? I thought sitting unhappily in anonymous' lap. By the dancing pixie's last stomp, it was dark in here!

A glow was produced from the end of the other person's wand. The light danced and twinkled off of James Potter's glasses. Oh, it was _that_ kind of an idiot. 

"You know, I didn't think it would take you so long to finish an essay," he teased. "You're the brainiac of the year. Merlin, am I stiff!" He rubbed a crick in the back of his neck. I had been inches away from showing that I liked him until that comment about brains. The nerve! He swung my emotions back and forth as easily as he passed a dung bomb to Sirius. I began to move off of his lap when his arms pulled me back. 

"Please Lily," he whispered to me, for once actually being serious. I reached a hand to pat down his tousled hair. James really was a sweet boy sometimes. "Don't you like me?" 

My insides writhed in turmoil. What was I going to do? My uncertainty must have showed on my face despite the semi-darkness because the next thing I knew, I was receiving a James Potter kiss full on the lips. NOW I knew why the girls in my dorm raved about them so. He pulled away leaving me breathless. I panicked as soon as I felt him move. He was just fooling with me! I knew it! That kid was going to be the squid's next dinner. 

"I… er…um, that is, I still hate you," I said weakly. James gave me another kiss that left me holding on to his neck for support. Damn him, no one ought to have so much influence over me. I had the feeling that this would lead to a huge mess before it was over. Either that or an emotional breakdown performed by me. 

"I wouldn't want you to change just for me," James said kissing me again. My overloaded brain had just enough time to come up with _Four kisses, FOUR from James Potter _before James swept me away into the biggest and longest lasting crush I would ever have.

"I _might_ like you," I .

"And maybe I was wrong."

"Of course you were wrong," I replied. 

"And maybe change is good after all," James answered before proceeding to make further conversation impossible. 

"Darn juveniles," Sirius muttered from the shadows. He shuffled through the photographs he'd just taken of the two Gryffindor prefects snogging each other silly. "Now how much blackmail do you think we can get with these?" 

"Lily really liked me?" Peter mumbled incredulously. He ran a hand through his sandy hair. "Just wait till I get my hands on you, Jimmy-boy!"

"Finally," Remus rolled his eyes. "I can't believe you made me come along just for this." He hurried off to complete a tryst he had made with some Ravenclaw. 

The evening in which Lily Evans and James Potter shared their first kiss wound to an end and a cat ran off to find her master, meowing indignantly about the number of bratty kids in the hallway that particular night.

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End file.
